236 



APPENDIX, 



V 



which had doubtless disappeared before the coming of any race of men that 

 has as yet been identified in this country. 



The succession of events in this region, as far as the species of bison are 

 concerned^ seems to have been somewhat as follows, viz. : — 



1st. 



J 



iatiY) 





\'J\ 



and its contemporaries,— the mastodon, musk ox {Bootherimn cavifrom), etc. 

 This species, like its contemporaries, bj its size gave evidence of the even 

 climate and abundant vegetation of the time just following, and probably in 

 part during the glacial period. 



2d. The disappearance of this fauna, followed by the coming of a race 

 (mound-builders) that retained no distinct traditions, and have left no art 

 records of the presence of any of the large animals of the preceding time. 



e disappearance of this race from the region north of the Tennessee, 

 probably leaving representatives in the Natchez group of Indians, followed 

 by the occupation of the country by a race that greatly extended the hmits of 

 the treeless plains to the eastward, and so permitted the coming of the modern 



3d. 



bison into this region 



I have long been 



as the most effective 



disposed to look upon the succeeding glacial periods 



that led to the determination 



causes of the changes 



\ 





of new specific characters among animals, and I am strongly disposed to 

 think that in the B. americarms w^e have the descendant of the B. Mifrons 

 modified by existence in the new conditions of soil and climate to which 

 it was driven by the great changes closing the last ice age. 



When the exploration of Big Bone Lick is completed, it will doubtless 

 show that there was an interval of some thousands of years between those 

 two species. 



> 



^ 





I 





r 





r 



i 



